My 9 Favorite Travel Quotes (and why they are my favorite)

Travel is in its nature a very poetic thing. The word itself raises the hairs on the arms of even the most devout homebodies. Actually putting it into words though is a different story. Luckily for us there are people who specialize in such a thing.

Here are 9 of my favorite travel quotes (and why I like them so much):

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

That very first time you take off on an adventure is an emotional roller coaster but getting yourself out of your comfort zone and into the great unknown is one of the most liberating things you can do. I think everyone should set off on his or her own if only once just to see if it’s for you. If you hate it you can always hop back on the ship and cruise back into the calm waters. Just be careful though the open ocean is addicting…

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag

Ahh the bane of every traveler’s existence is the ever expanding and shifting list. It would be so easy if the game was in alphabetical order and you went around the world checking off each item and giving high fives to yourself. The problem with this (other than travel to Afghanistan currently being frowned upon) is that every place you go you leave a little piece of you heart and it becomes obvious that you are going to have to go back. It’s never a question of “do I want to go there?” Instead it is “when will I go there?”

Not a bad place to sit.

“Most of my treasured memories of travel are recollections of sitting.” – Robert Thomas Allen

What is the most memorable thing from my travels so far? Climbing volcanoes, watching the sunrise over an ancient temple, eating the best meal of my life every few days? Nope. Those things are all great but I think the best memories are those where I’m able to sit and just take in the reality of traveling. This is a big, big world and I’m lucky enough to get to explore it.

“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley

Us humans are some stereotyping sons-a-bitches y’all. Now hand me my mint julep and that peach cobbler over yonder and let me tell ya about it. Really though the opinions we have of places (and the people in them) are wrong ninety-nine percent of the time. I blame that little glowing box that everyone finds so captivating.

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

More and more I’m finding this to be true. Maybe it’s because of my travel and work lifestyle but I find myself moving aimlessly through a place. I’ll go to a new town just because I think one time I heard some other traveler mention it in a bar but he also may have just been trying find the bathroom. Regardless I’m sure to end up in a place called Koh Phi Phi because well, where the hell else am I going to go?

I can smell the street meat now!

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling

I think the guy who invented the term sensory overload was probably getting his back scratched while eating a sprinkled donut and rolling face on acid, but if it wasn’t him then it was probably some traveler who just arrived in a new, strange place. To say that the sights and sounds of the other side of the world are invigorating wouldn’t be doing them justice, but hands down the first thing you notice about a place is its smell. Exhaust fumes and sizzling sausages form an intoxicating mix in Latin America. Bourbon Street in New Orleans has the rare combination of vomit, sex and fruit juice. In Southeast Asia the stinky ever-present durian turns your nose upside down in between wafts of rich soup broth. Can you smell that?

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine

This is one of those “get your head out of your ass” quotes that should be thrown in front of every teenage child every day until they finally break free from the binds of their hometown. I try not to have a “holier than thou” approach to people who don’t travel but if you’ve managed to hit your thirties and haven’t experienced the forced constipation of airline food then quit reading this, jump over to Kayak.com, and book the next plane to somewhere that smells different.

“Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.” – Kurt Vonnegut

When I first read this quote I was enamored by it. When you travel everything is fluid. You have to constantly adapt and be flexible moving your plans and expectations delicately from side to side. You are sure to get your toes stepped on and you’ll probably step on some too, but in the end you’ll be sweaty, exhausted, and wearing a smile that’s visible from outer space (which consequently is where Mr. Vonnegut is from I think).

“Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux

Allow me to change that for you Sir Theroux. “Travel is glamorous only in retrospect OR from afar.” Whether it is time or distance that separates you from a trip (your own or someone else’s) it is almost impossible to appreciate the difficulties and low points of a trip. When the pictures of beautiful sunsets and exotic foods are scrolling across your computer screen it is easy to ignore the fact that sometimes traveling is damn hard. No it’s not all beachside beers and sunburns, sometimes it’s racial slurs and diarrhea.

7 Comments

NIce list man, you’ve got some of my favorites on here. The first and the last especially resonate with me. I find that the biggest hurdle people face when thinking about traveling is the intial jolt of courage it takes to actually make the leap. Re the Theroux quote, I wish there was a way for the people back home who think traveling equals vacation could see some of the things us long term travelers deal with to reach those take your breath away moments.

I remember the first quote by Mark Twain was on a big poster in my school library and I vividly remember dreaming of travelling Europe way back then. Also the one by Robert Thomas Allen really speaks to me too!